COMPANY MEETING
THE UNITED MOLASSES COMPANY, LIMITED
MR. F. K. KIELBERG'S STATEMENT
A3 a convenience to stockholders who, owing to war conditions, may not find it possible to attend the company's annual meeting on May z9th, the chairman has circulated in advance to stockholders a copy of the statement which would normally have been read at the meeting, as summarised below:
The directors' report deals so fully with the figures of the profit and loss account and the balance-sheets that I believe stockholders will find them self-explanatory. There is, therefore, in existing conditions, little that I can usefully add in further explanation of the accounts or in elucidation of the company's activities during the year under review, and it would be idle to attempt to forecast the prospects for the current year, which depend on conditions so entirely beyond the control of your directors.
In the United Kingdom the company continues to act as agents for the Ministry of Supply, under the direction of the Controller of Molasses and Industrial Alcohol.
The extension of the war to the Far East has still further curtailed the company's field of activities and has brought' the company's business in that part of the world to a complete standstill. No news has been received from our subsidiary companies in China and Java since the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Hongkong and the Netherlands East Indies.
The original cost of the company's assets in the areas now overrun or threatened by the Japanese amounted to over £1,250,000, but, as mentioned in the previous report of the directors, the fixed assets had already been written off by the end of 1940 and the remainder of the company's investments in China, Java and India has in the meantime also been fully provided for.
The company's fleet of tankers continues to operate under charter to the Ministry of War Transport. Losses suffered during the year were not severe and I am happy to be able to state that the tonnage acquired from the outbreak of war up to December 3tst, 1941, exceeded the total tonnage lost by the company during the same period.
I should also like to take this opportunity to express our sympathy and good wishes to our many friends in China and the Netherlands East Indies. We look forward to the day when we shall be able to co-operate with them in repairing some of the ravages which the war has inflicted upon their countries.
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